“We will not steal diamonds.”
“Steal?” Planting her hands at her breast, Escalla goggled at the merethought. “Would I steal?”
“Yes.”
“What!” Escalla puffed up, feeling her honor impugned butlacking evidence or moral ground to stand on. “For your information, when faeriegirls take something, it’s loveable! It’s not stealing!”
“No diamonds.”
“Well, unowned ones then! You know they grow in the groundsomewhere.”
Escalla, Jus, and Cinders stared once again across the quiet roofs.
The faerie drew her brows into a frown. “Shapeshifters, huh?We must have pissed someone off mightily.”
“Someone has plans we must be interfering with.” Jus flexedhis hands. “Be careful.”
Outside the tavern, the open street offered the best view ofthe surrounding land. Smoothing Polk’s map under his hands, the Justicar lookedthoughtfully at his painted lines and squiggles. The map was hopelessly inaccurate. The party’s position could be virtually anywhere dozens of milesfrom where he imagined them to be.
To the southeast lay the sea. To the west lay a ruined castle in which Escalla’s hydra had made its lair. Northward, many hundreds of milesaway, lay Furyondy and Hommlet. Keoland was a broad kingdom. The forest supposedly served as its southern border, although the map seemed to be made mostly from wishful thinking and pure guesswork.
The road through the village seemed old and abandoned, yet perhaps it led to another settlement where they could find directions and purchase food. The smoke he had seen earlier in the morning seemed to suggest that there was some sort of settlement nearby. Jus amassed his information swiftly and methodically, while behind him ash cakes baked in the tavern’shearth for breakfast.
Blowing through his scraggly moustache, Polk watched disapprovingly from afar. He finally marched out of the tavern and took position behind the Justicar’s map.
Jus folded the map without bothering to look up. “Polk, shutup.”
“What are you readin’ for, son? You’re addled! Touched in theskull!” Polk squared his silly hat upon his head. “This is a time for action,boy! A time for sword and blades and magic!” Polk stamped in impatience at astudent who seemed to be eternally dim. “Never mind the maps. Let instinct beour guide!”
“Polk, you have
Cinders lay spread across the table, his shark-toothed grin gleaming with a piece of coal between his jaws. The Justicar borrowed a coal flake to draw on the map.
“May I?”
“Polk!” Jus drew a circle around the supposed location ofdistant Hommlet. “We have just been attacked by something that seemed reallyannoyed.” The ranger tapped a finger on the map, guessing at the possible flowof local rivers. “I’m in favor of moving very carefully and fairly swiftly,looking for inhabited villages and keeping our heads down while we see who might want us dead.”
Enid had found a tall stone tower at the edge of the village. On tables dragged from a dozen houses, she had begun laying out scrolls, riddles, books, and parchments found on an eventful journey from Trigol. More loot from the ruined castle’s library gave her even more toys to play with.Plain and sweetly curious, she was reading through her books and thoroughly enjoying herself. She looked over the edge of a scorched volume, raised her brows, and said, “Aren’t we staying here, then? I was so looking forward tocatching up on a book or two!”
“Someone apparently doesn’t want us to stay.”
Jus stored the map, patted Cinders, and then cocked one brow as a strange noise came drifting from the tavern door.
Light-hearted, happy singing astounded one and all. It came pure and sweet, a girlish voice without a trouble in the world.
Through a window, Escalla could be seen hovering in mid air. She had fixed her hair and wore a beautiful silk costume bought in Trigol. She primped herself happily in a mirror, then turned a little pirouette.
The faerie drifted lightly out into the morning air, twirling merrily as she came. On seeing Jus she paused, made a knowing little smile, and then hovered at his shoulder with her head tilted to one side. She smiled secretly at him for a moment. Finally, to everyone’s shock, Escalla kissed himon the ear and said, “You’re
Jus stared in wonderment. The faerie hovered, looking at him with a strangely satisfied smile, and then fluttered back into the tavern.
Cinders’ red eyes gleamed.
Jus’ ear tingled. He actually turned a strange shade ofreddish pink. Polk joined him in staring at the tavern door. The teamster cleared his throat into the silence.
“Spring?”
Enid blinked and said, “Autumn’s only just begun.”
“Maybe faeries get it early?”
“Oh, dear.”
Jus wonderingly touched his ear-still red hot from Escalla’skiss. He blinked, shook himself, then swept his maps efficiently underneath his arm.
“All right! Let’s get fed. There’s smoke about three miles tothe north. We’ll leave in ten minutes, head north, and investigate. Enid, if youwant to organize your books, you might want to stay here while we go to town and fly after us in a”-Jus sniffed at a strange odor-“in… in a…”
Something was frying, possibly bacon, possibly honey. A sickeningly sweet stench redolent of dental cavities coiled about the village roofs. A pan banged noisily from the tavern room, and Escalla’s voice pealedinto the street.
“Breakfast! Come on, adventurers! Get it while it’s hot!”
Enid and Polk uneasily looked at one another. The sphinx looked a little pale as she said, “Escalla cooked?”
“She cooked.” Polk bit his lip in trepidation “Well, ah, sheis a girl. I kinda guess all girls can cook.”
Escalla had a metabolism like a hummingbird. Her concept of a happy breakfast had enough sugar in it to turn grown men into gibbering loons.
Jus gave a sigh and tightened up his sword belt. “This couldbe interesting.”
Enid blinked and said, “I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
Inside the tavern, Escalla had laid out a dented old serving platter full of food. She hovered above the table, pleased as a cat swimming in cream, and very ostentatiously primped a vase of champagne roses at the center of the table.
“There was honey in a pot in the pantry, and we still hadsugar, so I made cakes and bacon!” Breakfast gleamed beneath a sweet glaze ofsugar crystals. “Eat hearty!”
Everyone stared at Escalla’s creation, which sat theregleaming under an ocean of syrup. The faerie personally made sure that everybody had a helping. She put extra syrup on her own plate, dipped waybread into the mixture and crammed it straight into her mouth.
“’S good! Try shome!”
With painfully polite expressions, the faerie’s companionsall tried the meal one by one. It had a jolt like an electric eel. Everyone made a great show of swallowing and nodding, making Escalla beam.
The faerie had brewed tea in a big rusty kettle she found in a cupboard. The resulting brew was colored half by rust and half by tea leaves. She happily poured the mixture into tin mugs for one and all. Polk sniffed at it, looked at the Justicar with the eyes of a man who had just been handed hemlock, and watched Escalla as she went about her chores.
“Aren’t you drinkin’ any, girl?”
“Oh no. Tea makes me hyper!”
Sitting beside her bouquet of roses, Escalla sat on her hands and happily watched Jus as he ate. In his time,
